ITMA day 2 - Pearson

Blogging is so much harder now that I'm teaching again. I just got around to getting the rest of the pictures off my camera from my North Carolina trip.
On the second day we went to Pearson Furniture Company in High Point, NC. It is an incredible place. We were able to take a tour of the whole plant and see how a piece of furniture is made from start to finish.
Some highlights are below:

Assembled frames waiting to move to the next station.


They do eight way hand-tied springs. Those are some nimble fingers.


Cushions waiting.


Legs!


These are all the patterns for their upholstery.


A pattern being cut out of fabric. There was also a CAD machine that cuts out their solid color fabric, but real people hand cut all of the patterned fabric. Incredible. I can barely make a slipcover.


A row of industrial sewing machines. These ladies were just zipping through the fabric. It was amazing how fast and accurate they were.


All of the expensive fabric was placed behind barbed wire fences that get locked up at night. It was weird. Our tour guide said that they once had fabric with actual gold woven into it. They have also had fabric that costs $300 per yard! That's about $295 more than I'm willing to spend.

I wish I had taken some pictures of finished furniture. We didn't see an actual showroom, so all the furniture was in progress.